Background and career
William Mack Brown (born August 27, 1951) is an American former college football coach. Brown most recently coached at the University of North Carolina, where he had two stints, first from 1988 until 1997, and again from 2019 until his firing at the end of the 2024 season. During his second stint in Chapel Hill, Brown became the North Carolina Tar Heels football program's all-time winningest coach, passing Dick Crum for most wins in program history. Brown is perhaps most well known for his tenure at the University of Texas at Austin, where he coached the Texas Longhorns from 1998 until 2013, winning two Big 12 Conference championships, and a national championship in 2005. His 2005 Texas Longhorns football team won the 2006 Rose Bowl, in what has been considered the greatest game in college football history, to win the national title. Prior to his head coach positions at Texas and North Carolina, Brown was head football coach at Appalachian State University for one season, in 1983, and at Tulane University from 1985 to 1987. While at Tulane, he also served as the school's athletic director. He is credited with revitalizing the North Carolina and Texas football programs. In 2006, he was awarded the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award for "Coach of the Year". Brown achieved his 200th career win during the 2008 season, making him the first Texas coach to reach that mark. He resigned after the 2013 Alamo Bowl, leaving as the second-winningest coach in program history (11 wins behind Darrell Royal).
Brown was born as the middle of three boys (brothers Mel and Watson) on August 27, 1951, in Cookeville, Tennessee. He was born into a Church of Christ family. During his teenage years, he attended Putnam County High School. Brown's family had a long history with football. His grandfather, Eddie Watson, was an athlete at Tennessee Tech and a coach at Putnam County High School for more than three decades. His father, Melvin Brown, was also a coach and an administrator. Mack's older brother Watson also coached, and was the head football coach at a total of six Division I football schools, ending his career with their hometown school, Tennessee Tech. Mack attended Vanderbilt University before attending Florida State University and graduating in 1974. He later received a graduate degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1976. During his undergraduate years, Brown was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
Brown was a three-sport star at Putnam County High School, playing football, basketball and baseball. After his senior season, he won All-State as well as Prep All-America honors and was selected one of the nation's top running backs by Scholastic Magazine his senior year. The Tennessean selected him as the state player of the year. He accepted a football scholarship to Vanderbilt University, where his brother Watson Brown was the starting quarterback. In his time playing for the Vanderbilt Commodores, he played for Bill Pace and rushed 82 times for 364 yards and three touchdowns, as well as catching seven passes for 50 yards and a touchdown during the 1970 season. Brown then transferred to Florida State University. Brown played for Florida State under head coach Larry Jones. At Florida State, he had 31 rushing attempts for 98 yards and 10 catches for 76 yards with no touchdowns in the 1972 season. Lettering twice as a running back for the Seminoles, he started his coaching career as a student coach after five knee surgeries ended his career prematurely. While at Florida State, Brown was roommates with Dick Hopkins.
Brown's first experience coaching came as a student coach of wide receivers at Florida State, a position he held in 1973 and 1974. From 1975 to 1977, he was the wide receivers coach at Southern Miss. This was followed by a one-year stint as wide receivers coach at Memphis State. For the 1979 season, he joined the staff of Iowa State, again as a wide receivers coach, before a promotion to offensive coordinator. In 1980, after going 3–8 the year prior, Iowa State improved their record to 6–5 in large part due to running back Dwayne Crutchfield (1,312 yards with 11 TDs) and the rest of Brown's offense. The team scored 108 more points that year than they had in 1979. In 1981, the team finished with a 5–5–1 record, despite starting out with a record of 5–1–1. RB Dwayne Crutchfield was again a key focal point in Brown's offense and ran for 1,189 yards with 17 TDs. In 1982, Brown moved to LSU as the quarterbacks coach. The LSU Tigers improved their record to 8–3–1 from 3–7–1 the year prior in large part due to Brown's coaching of quarterback Alan Risher, who threw for 1,834 yards with 17 TD and 8 INT. He also completed 63.7% of his pass attempts. Risher had thrown 14 TD in the previous two seasons combined before Brown's arrival.
Brown's first head coaching job came in 1983 when he led Appalachian State to a 6–5 record. In December 1983, he was seriously considered for the head coaching position at LSU which had been vacated after Jerry Stovall was fired, but the position instead went to Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Bill Arnsparger.
Brown moved back to a role as offensive coordinator for the Oklahoma Sooners during the 1984 season under head coach Barry Switzer. Oklahoma would run for 2,376 yards as a team that season, averaging 216 yards a game. QB Danny Bradley also would throw for nearly 1,000 yards with 8 TD vs 5 INT. RBs Lydell Carr, Steve Sewell, and Spencer Tillman combined to run for 1,651 yards with 12 TD.
